This algorithm can tell which number sequences a human will find interesting The result hints that machines could one day be trained to spot mathematical elegance and beauty.

Crunching the numbers The RSA algorithm works as follows: First, I find two huge (at least 100 digits each!) prime numbers p and q, and then I multiply them together to get the even bigger number N.

In one of the most hilarious papers we have read this year, two scientists challenged some famous quantum factorization ...

Prime numbers are whole numbers greater than 1 that are not divisible by any whole number other than 1 and itself. The first few are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 … To explain how the RSA algorithm works ...

As of October 2024, we have found the biggest prime number we know of — and it took almost 6 years to find it. To generate this number, you multiply 2 by itself 136,279,841 times (resulting in ...